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Appellate Reversals

About FACE Staff, April 2000

What happens when a judge’s mistakes make his ruling so far off base from the law and precident case-law that an appeal is warranted?

In reality, petitions to the New Jersey Supreme Court are almost never granted -- less than 1%. Your last and only hope is that the Appellate Division will grant meaningful review to a trial court’s decision.

FACE members are now researching the reversal rates of each Appellate judge. It is already apparent that some Appellate judges take a hard look at errors, while others are rubber stamps for anything done by a trial judge. We will publish the results of their research in an upcoming issue of About FACE so, if you have an appeal pending, you can find out if you have a fair shot at review or you have drawn a mindless affirmer.